I’ve started working on the painting that is based on the sketch I posted previously. I’m using the Permastone panel I made a few days ago as my surface, and will be painting this in gouache.

Here I’ve toned the white panel with a thinned coat of sepia ink, which is a shellac based ink. I then transferred the drawing by covering the back of it with a light grey pastel, and then drawing it to the panel, leaving just outlines to guide me.

Next I will set the dark tones. I could do that with another layer of ink, but too much shellac could be a problem for the gouache, so I think that I’ll just start painting. I’m going to try not to get too tight and detailed on this – keeping it loose and sketchy.

A couple years ago I published a post here about making a tile panel out of a sculpture casting material called “Permastone.” I wanted to try it again, this time making some larger panels to paint on.

I found this plastic painting palette from Creative Mark that had an indentation in the center about 9 x 12.5 inches and an 1/8th of an inch deep. I decided to use this as my mold. I mixed up the Peramstone, and poured it in. After waiting about 30 minutes it had become like soft clay, so I scored around the edges with a knife to make it easy to remove. I also trimmed off half an inch to make it 9 x 12. I waited about another hour, and then tipped it over and it fell out nice and solid. It’s fragile being this thin, so I’ll glue a wood panel to back for extra support.

Next I wanted to go to a larger size. For my mold I used a metal picture frame that was 16 x 20 inches. I placed a glass pane inside it, and flipped it face down. It took almost the whole 28 ounce bag of Permastone for a panel this size. I also made it slightly wetter so it would flow and level out more easily. It came out okay, but had a tendency to bend and I was afraid it might crack. Next time I might glue it to a wood panel before removing it from the frame. Any regular PVA glue works fine. These panels are very nice for oils, acrylics, or gouache.

I’ll call this the final post of this painting, but there’s still some adjustments to be done. Some edges to soften and few other minor tweaks, but I’ll let it sit for awhile before finishing it off. It’s 18 x 24″, gouache on illustration board.